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Abebe Bikila was born in 1932 in Jato, a town 130 km from Addis Ababa. According to tradition, he spent most of his childhood to be a shepherd and study simultaneously. In 1952, young Abebe was hired to be the imperial guard corps. In 1954, he married. 4 children were born of this union.

Abebe Bikila remained imperial guard for a few years before to stand as a quality athlete. He had a "revelation" when he looked Ethiopian athletes scroll to the Melbourne Olympics. Watching these athletes wearing tracksuit with "Ethiope" marked on the back, he decided he would, too, an Olympic athlete.

In 1956, at the age of 24, Abebe participated in the National Championships of the Armed Forces. The hero of the time was Wami Biratu. He held the national records in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. During the marathon, the crowd in the stadium expected to see Wami Biratu win the race. In the first kilometers, Wami was leading. After a while, broadcasters informed the crowd that a young unknown named athlete Abebe Bikila was leading. As Abebe was extending his lead, the crowd waited impatiently to see this new sensation. Abebe easily won his first major race. He then beat the records in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters Wami Biratu. With these impressive results, Abebe qualified for the Rome Olympics. Finally, Abebe's dream of wearing a tracksuit with "Ethiopia" on the back was realized. Yet as incredible as it may be, it does its selection in the Ethiopian Olympic team that "thanks" to the injury of one of three riders selected beforehand, like what fate sometimes plays an important role.

Going back to Onni Niskanen is in 1959 while residing in Ethiopia and he spotted Bikila became his coach. With Niskanen, innate talent Bikila was soon fully exploited: two months before the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960, Bikila won his first marathon in 2h39'50 ", a time that was nothing special; one month later, he gained a second in 2h21'23 '. The weather this time gave him hope some chances at the Olympics. Outside the devotion he showed to mankind (in charge of the Finnish Red Cross), Niskanen had passion like athletics, and he had no equal to sniff out the talent of a runner. What was not his emotion the first time he had seen Bikila running! A jewel in the rough! "I had never seen such a naturally gifted runner for prolonged effort. It's just if his heart rate increased despite the altitude. It was an exceptional case. Bikila was never rarely felt tired and even the need to drink a glass of water after a workout. "

Before leaving for Rome, he had made ​​her do a final test on 32km, Bikila had realized 1h42'36 ", extrapolating were obtained approximately 2:15, which was the fastest time of the day made ​​by the Russian Sergei Popov (2:15 '17 ") that Popov had made ​​on the Windsor-Chiswick course.

Among the favorites of the race so it was the Russian Popov, Argentinian Osvaldo Suarez, and the Moroccan Rhadi that the French would like to see run for their color, in fact it has been the military among Moroccan infantrymen, he been several time cross country champion France in particular. But he ultimately chose the Moroccan jersey.

From the 5th kilometer 4 men stand out: the British Kelly, the Belgian Vandendriessche, and Rhadi Bikila, Popov has already released what is the first surprise of the evening.

Truly Bikila and his coach already know when to attack, and the chosen location is not trivial. In Bikila and Niskanen had noticed that effect within a mile of a finish line at the Arch of Constantine, there was the Axis obelisk that was looted by Italian troops and brought back Ethiopia to Rome. It seemed appropriate to use as a benchmark to trigger the final attack saw that there was a slight slope. Nobody would have thought that the Ethiopian would go there except him. As expected, Bikila attacked there, and won his first marathon, under the Arc de Triomphe, where also 25 years ago, Mussolini launched his troops to attack Ethiopia.

He won the Olympic marathon in 2h15'16 "(8 minutes better than the record of the times held by the Polish legend Emil Zatopek). The public and journalists were surprised that he had walked the 42.195 kilometers barefoot! Instead prohibit him from running barefoot, Niskanen had compared the time with shoes and without shoes. Bikila ran faster without shoes and Niskanen had therefore left running barefoot.

After his victory, Bikila modestly declared that "many other riders from the Ethiopian army could win this marathon", but the Tokyo Olympics four years later confirmed that he was a unique marathon. (We will see besides the rest of his life in the next episode of this fabulous history of the Olympics).

On his return, Bikila was welcomed with the highest honors. The King of Kings received him in person. An apartment and a car were offered. We had to correct him. Apart from that Spiridon Louys, no victory was not full of history than his. Soon the old African storytellers begin to weave the legend of "man to run from sunrise to sunset."